974 TUSAYAN FLUTE AND SNAKE CEREMONIES [ETH. ANN.19 
cient to conceal whatever was placed within. Shortly before the 
dance began a sack containing all the reptiles was deposited in the 
kisi by two Snake priests. 
The public ceremony was ushered in by the appearance of the line 
of Antelope priests, headed by their chief, who carried his tiponi on 
his left arm. There were twenty persons in this procession, the 
rear of which consisted of four small boys. Next to the chief came 
an albino, likewise bearing a tiponi on hisarm. The Antelope priests 
were dressed and painted as are those of Walpi, but the four small 
boys who closed the line wore very small kilts. In the 1885 celebra- 
tion, according to Mindeletf, there were but ten Antelope priests in 
line. The increase in number is in accord with what has been observed 
at Walpi, where the number of participants has also increased in late 
years. 
Each Antelope priest, except one to be presently noticed, carried 
two rattles, one in each hand, which is characteristic of two of the 
Middle mesa pueblos, but different from the custom at Walpi and 
Oraibi, where each Antelope priest carries one rattle only. 
The third man in the line bore a medicine-bowl and an aspergill; he 
wore a fillet of cottonwood leaves, and was comparable with the asper- 
ger of the Walpi and other variants. He dipped his feathered asper- 
gill into the medicine-bowl as he entered and left the plaza, and 
asperged to world-quarters and upon the Snake priests. Before the 
snake dance began, this man called out an invocation to warriors. 
In an account of the Oraibi dance it has been noted that the words 
of this invocation, which have long been recognized as foreign to 
the Hopi language, were also used in Keresan songs at Sia pueblo. 
In the course of these new investigations direct inquiries were made in 
regard to the meaning of the words, and the identity of the persona- 
tion by the man who utters them. The man who makes this invocation 
is believed to represent the Acoma relatives of the Snake people. 
There are several songs in Hopi secret rites, the words of which 
resemble closely certain terms of the Keresan language, in addition 
to the vocables common to sacred songs of all American Indians. 
The line of Antelope priests made four circuits about the plaza, and 
as each member passed the shrine in the middle of the plaza, he dropped 
a pinch of meal upon it. The same act of prayer was repeated before 
the kisi when the priest stamped violently on a plank as he dropped 
the sacred meal. The Antelopes then formed a platoon at the kisi 
and awaited the Snake priests, who soon appeared, headed by the 
Snake chief. 
When the Antelope priests had formed in a platoon in front of the 
kisi (plate xvii), it was noticed that the line was continuous and not 
broken into two divisions, a right and a left, as at Walpi. ‘The first 
four men and the ninth man in line, counting from the left, were 
